No tip dive touring skis

[mall walker]

kinda tough to say from the picture, is that like a full cm on either side? that's fine at the tip/tail imo but might be pushing it in the middle of the ski...

[MiddleOfNight]

Firm snow: no way. Powder: it could be alright.

+1

If you're up high on windblown or steep stuff it could be dangerous.

[Reformed]

Yay or nay?

If you have to ask you'll find out soon enough...

[swissiphic]

split em, have a center backing strip, go to a shop and salvage some trimmed edge pieces that are a bit wider, stick em in the center section. haven't tried it, but could work. I have pretty good success splitting skins over the years but without filling in the center section.

[HukuTa_KydecHuk]

Having been there in a pinch: never again.

+1
Decrease in the grip is noticeable from the first step. If you are touring on a narrow skin track you are going to have fun times. I spent couple of days touring on 118 waist skis with 106 skins - never again.

[swissiphic]

Forgot to mention, in certain snow conditions, the split skins gripped quite a bit better than regular wall to wall carpeting. In moist spring snow, slush, hard crusts the difference was quite dramatic. I suspect that the thinner strips of plush and inner 'face' of the hairs penetrate crusts better which reduces down the fall line blown step sliding on steep traverses.

In moist and slushy snow, i think the center channel allows a bit of a 'cookie cutter' effect to assist grip. Glide can be compromised a bit though if you simply slice down the middle of the skin and the resulting shape forces the tail areas closer together than the center portion of the skins. This creates a bit of a 'brake' effect...noticable but not a huge deal breaker for me. The solution is obviously to carve the channel so that both inner faces are truly parallel to each other in a straight line, rather than curving ever so slightly together in a taper from ski mid section to the tails.

Most of my skinning is soloing and building my own roads. Can't comment on how they do on pre built highways of various surface qualities.

[XXX-er]

Yay or nay?

Entirely depends on your expectations, I got that kind of coverage (90mm on 116) for my pre-season rock skis which get used for mostly low angle stuff up around the ski hill but once the snow gets deeper and the trails are steeper the skin coverage of my more serious setups goes W2W

[Cocximus]

Oke, got it. Not worth trying, and I don't want to be that guy in a group. Maybe one day I'll take a trip to Vermon to skin inbounds and try stupid shit.


No way I am splitting those skins. Good idea, but I don't want add complications to my main setup.

[whyturn]

I just picked up some drifters which a basically a light megawatt and similar to Lotus +5mm. No way they will sink. Big tip and pintail is way to go IMO

[Cocximus]

Whole lots of yay.

The lotus 120 are great thanks for all the recommendations. There is a learning curve. First thing I need to get used to is less edge angle on hard snow.
I gather they are a ski that like ball of foot driving, but shin pressure is always required.
I tried them in the resort first day just to get used to them. Carving a 36m ski was a blast. Do they make a 90ish mm 35+m turning radius ski?

I just picked up some drifters which a basically a light megawatt and similar to Lotus +5mm. No way they will sink. Big tip and pintail is way to go IMO

Dunno why voile went full dentist. I wish they would have kept their drifters, superchargers and fish scales.

[1000-oaks]

Awesome man, get those in some pow yet?

[TeleBeaver]

Dunno why voile went full dentist. I wish they would have kept their drifters, superchargers and fish scales.

They still make the superchargers as well as various models of fat fishscaled skis. They likely dropped the drifters because they are a dedicated touring ski company and very few people want to tour on a 125mm waisted ski.

[Cocximus]

Awesome man, get those in some pow yet?

Oh yea, awesome skis where they really belong . Thanks for them.

They still make the superchargers as well as various models of fat fishscaled skis. They likely dropped the drifters because they are a dedicated touring ski company and very few people want to tour on a 125mm waisted ski.

Dunno, I am pretty sure my old vectors are 20M+. New ones are <20m.

[TeleBeaver]

Dunno, I am pretty sure my old vectors are 20M+. New ones are <20m.

Oh you're right about that. The Vector in 180 has a 23m radius and the newer Ultravector has a 20m radius in 184. Similar change from the Charger to the Supercharger. They also dropped the fattest fishscale model, the Charger BC. I wouldn't call it full dentist but they did "neuter" the models by tgr standards a little bit. I own the 180 vector and 178 supercharger and they both rip. The Supercharger is one of my favorite skis ever and I much prefer it over the vector. Maybe I ski like a dentist in the BC.

[CaliBrit]

What ski would be sort of like the G3 synapse? I have the BD Helio 105 and thinking of going to something a bit more powered oriented without going 120mm. Under 1700g in 185 ish or so. Pretty anti DPS for info.

[mall walker]

Do they make a 90ish mm 35+m turning radius ski?

Down LD90 is a 29m radius, and the LD102 is a 41. That's as long a radius as I've found in skis that narrow though.

[1000-oaks]

Older YW8 89 is 41m, designed for steep skiing so it's super straight.
https://www.freeride.com/gear/skis/d...is-yw8-89.html

Great on corn, haven't tried hard snow yet. Substantial tip rocker for a 1200g narrow ski. Use inserts and epoxy to mount. I normally never get spinners, but mounting these resulted in a ton of spinners. If you don't use inserts, torque the screws VERY lightly. Snug and stop. I mounted at furthest back mark, which is -11 from center or so.

[abraham]

The LD102 seems like a really interesting ski.

[mall walker]

Older YW8 89 is 41m, designed for steep skiing so it's super straight.
https://www.freeride.com/gear/skis/d...is-yw8-89.html

Great on corn, haven't tried hard snow yet. Substantial tip rocker for a 1200g narrow ski. Use inserts and epoxy to mount. I normally never get spinners, but mounting these resulted in a ton of spinners. If you don't use inserts, torque the screws VERY lightly. Snug and stop. I mounted at furthest back mark, which is -11 from center or so.

Are you happy with yours? I really want a pair of these...

[Best Mexican Skier from Da South]

Praxis Protests with UL Core for deep pow.

4FRNT Ravens for more all mountain touring with up to a foot of pow or spring corn. Versatile. Very Versatile.

[wckdmediocr]

BD amperages

[wckdmediocr]

or G3 districts

[1000-oaks]

Are you happy with yours? I really want a pair of these...

Only one chute on them so far on perfect corn, so can't say. Probably would have liked any ski that day. They have a boatload of tip rocker for a skinny cambered ski.

[CaliBrit]

Thinking of going with some V-Werks Katanas.

[Bullet]

I hate tip dive as well. The Dynafit Hokkaido and Beast 108 don't have that problem.